Black Mountain makes five

After a late start to my cross country ski racing season, I've finally completed five races to maximizing my Michigan Cup points. The first race, the 40K White Pine Stampede Freestyle, was not necessarily my first choice for my first race of the season, but I survived and have gradually gotten stronger as I raced my way through the Gran Travers Classic 16K, Cote Dame Marie 30K, Hanson Hills Classic 12K, and the Black Mountain 31K Classic. By the time the Michigan Cup Relays roll around (think snow!!!!), I'll have raced myself into shape.

Black Mountain was a wonderful race. I was feeling at little under the weather leading up to it, but hedged my beats by waxing up a great pair of skis: Toko LH Moly, Toko HF Yellow, Solda PowerJet 1 pure fluro iron in, and HelX Warm (the old stuff) over top. I rilled and cross hatched a structure into my skis using both the Swix riller and Toko Structurite tools.

I just hoped I'd have fast skis to overcome fitness liabilities. Technology to the rescue....

I used Swix KR50 Vario klister like most people. I've had great luck with Toko in the past, but the KR50 had a wider temperature range that I thought might work better over the temperature changes during the race.

The first kilometers

I did not do much of a pre-race warm-up, so I kept the pace down for the first few kilometers. I had a good start so I could avoid crashes, then settled into an easy pace. After the first k or so, I was with Bill Kaltz, Michael Seaman, and Rob Fairman. Rob started pulling away and after he had gained a 100 yards, I jumped to the inside of a corner to pass Bill and gradually pulled Rob in as Rob pulled in Dell Todd.

I was really happy to reache Dell, who's been easily out racing me all season. Alas, he took one look at us and was gone. I never saw him the rest of the race. We caught Dan Yankus who stepped his own pole and broke it. He hoped to get a new pole at an aid station. Fortunately for him, an aid station was just a short distance ahead. With a new pole, he quickly caught up. When Don Camp came flying by at around 10K, Dan jumped on his tail...and that was the last of both of them until the finish.

Rob and I leap-frogged each other several times. I was faster in the downhills, he faster on the climbs. At one point, he got kind of far ahead as I took a feed (a mixture of Hammer Nutrition HEED and Perpetuem) from my water botttle. But there were two fast downhills with left hand corners. I screamed around the first, and screamed around the second...and slide almost to a halt to keep from hitting Rob. He had crashed in the corner and, although up and moving, was still directly in my line

That would be me, pacing behind Glenn Goodman during last quarter of the race.
(photo: Carole Mueller-Brumbaugh)

The fall shook Rob up a bit and he dropped off the back.

I skied at an efficient pace: we were only 30 minutes or so into the race and I wanted to make sure the second half was as fast as the first half. I purposely paced myself to go the distance.

A surprise behind me

Rob caught back up and I left him draft for a few kilometers. I could feel him losing ground on the downhills and gaining it back on the ups. I figured he might tire himself out that way trying to catch back up. I eventually decided he should pull, so I pulled over to let him pass. As I readied to jump in behind him, I was blocked: Larry Kanaby was drafting Rob! I hadn't realized Larry had caught us.

I also didn't know that that we were coming into a section of long gentle climbs. Rob and Larry gradually pulled away. I had a choice: go under in order to stay with them, or stay in the zone and wait for a better opportunity to catch them. I chose the later course of action.

It took a long long long time, but eventually I rejoined Larry and Rob. We made up ground and picked up Glenn Goodman who was frustrated with glide and icing problems. I don't really think he had that much worse glide or icing problems than the rest of us, but I think he was letting it go to his head. Hey, I almost crashed directly in front of him as we glided down a gentle hill and I suddenly iced!

The last 3 (or 4?) K

On a little downhill, I get into my tuck and headed around our little group to take the lead. At that same moment, I say the 27K marker. 3K left! (at this time, I thought the race was 30K, not 31K). From previous races here, I knew there were some substantial rollers coming up, and if I could out glide everyone on the downhills, I might be able to lose them. So I kicked up my skiing into high gear and took off!

My plan worked. There were some steep fast downhills that caused some problems for the others while I gained ground in my lowest tuck. I did not need to worry about anyone crashing in front of me. Over the next several hills, I gradually pulled away.

Then I arrived at the 30K marker. What the...???? I guess I should have read the fine print. I still had more race to go!

Just before the final downhill, I come upon Jon Foltz and Ken Dawson. Not really knowing what that final right-hand corner onto the lack was going to be like, I descended conservatively so I wouldn't run into either of them. Jon missed the corner and I skied past him before he could get back on line. Ken was not too far ahead. I had a better line coming onto the lake and made up most of the distance, but just could not make up the last few yards. Ken finished a couple seconds ahead.

It was the most exciting race of the season so far. It involved conscious decisions about the effort I was going to expend at different times on the course. I skied my strength - the downhills - to maximum advantage.

I plan to hit the two Boyne Highland races this weekend in hopes of getting some better places so I can move up in the Michigan Cup standings. I'd better hope my uphills are as good as my downhills....